For the American hot rodder it might not be of much interest but I have always been drawn to these cars The great thing about these older books is that the authors usually had firsthand knowledge of the cars that they were writing about Very few pictures just a lot of in-depth technical information the authors have great credentials I found this copy pretty cheap with a company called thriftbooks I also have several other old books that cover these cars written by people that actually owned and drove them
When this project was started it was just going to be a stationary engine (talk about losing focus) I had picked up a offenhauser 2x2 intake but it didn’t have the look I wanted I really like the’34 intake and have already done alot of porting for a single carb and not wanting to mess with that manifold went ahead and picked up another’34 manifold I believe you started to see the y type carb adapter coming out in the late’30s so decided to check out vintage speeds adapter for the price I am really happy It has a 5 1/2” carb spacing Will need to do some matching for the carbs and then open up the manifold face and then on the manifold I will do the runner porting like I did with the original but then open up the carb mount to an open plenum I am curious what the Edelbrock sling shot manifold looks like on the inside but have failed in finding any pictures am assuming they kept a dual plane setup but if anyone has pictures please post them If I only knew how to photoshop
Cool build, can’t wait to see more! What’s the book with the model t ascot racer you have shown in the beginning?
Thanks Here you go a coffee table book lots of good pictures A good day on YouTube today Had the Prescott hill climb and bonneville
Because of tropical storm Debby I had a couple of days in the basement on the milling machine to work on the vintage speed intake First had to do a little dremel work for clearance used a 1.250” end mill to open up the ports will do some die grinding to blend in The intake side was a little offset on the casting flycut the mating surfaces now for the intake manifold I had got this manifold because I didn’t want to mess up my other intake wanted to see how these were cast So here is how the exhaust heat riser is cast I’ve blocked off the exhaust crossover in the block so I can save this with a little jb weld I now know that I can take my good manifold and just taper the ports on the upper 1/2” This manifold also had some corrosion on the face so this was a good test of the fly cutter I had made several years ago just for when I need to mill my heads https://youtube.com/shorts/uj5G8NBi0Cs?si=3vk81_K6g5GBOF6e will need to port the runners then this combination intake will be ready for testing when I have the engine running Will be taking a little break from this project got to start preparing for my local steam and gas show in a couple of weeks Till next time
An ongoing project has been the generator Like to thank Steve Blancard who I met at the swap meet back in the spring you can see his short but informative videos on generator repair here. https://youtube.com/@steveblancard5566?si=j_r1c97fKG2FIrgp Steve kindly talked me out of using the solid state cut out and just adjusting the original Here it is after adjusting https://youtube.com/shorts/Fh_mU8E1mxQ?feature=shared https://youtube.com/shorts/1-r7QgjKnB8?feature=shared Brought out my dads old growler to check the armature https://youtube.com/shorts/tkkhzsy5mVo?feature=shared so I got a shorted armature and that’s where my generator has stalled out for now but you never know when parts will appear
We truly blessed with great weather this past week so I took the opportunity and got the engine painted Not some of my best work but not my worst either The little air compressor I am currently using just can’t keep up with my old siphon gun I’m still adapting to my new work area Engine will now be put back on the engine stand and be transferred to my clean engine assembly room (my man cave basement) So this winter I hope to get the assembly done
Needed a way to store the trans Looked thru the scrap pile for inspiration and found a brake drum from my daily driver It’s the type with built in bearings Machined it flat then welded in a piece of pipe This works great it makes a base that is small but really stable with the transmission on top and it still rotates My’35 swan shifter
Previously I had machined about 4.5 lbs off of the flywheel so I used Mart’s method of balancing https://youtube.com/@martsgarage?si=vS9HObNVopLemhMC I was afraid of screwing up so the hole I drilled I used a letter F drill which is the hole size for a 5/16” tap I could always tap the hole and thread metal back in The first hole is 1” deep the second is just a starter drill I feel real confident because my holes ended up in between what was left from the original balancing holes my holes were even biased towards the bigger of the 2 I am going to try and experiment further I found a bearing that fits on the front of the crank I’m then going to mount the crank with flywheel attached in the lathe so it will be supported on each end with a ball bearing and see if everything is still balanced Stay tuned
Continuing with the generator I went to install the field coils and found that the new screws that I had bought that were supposed to be for all flathead v8s were not the correct size Apparently later v8 had 7/16 threads my generator had 3/8 threads the same as model A I think and not wanting to buy just 2 bolts went to use some screws from inventory and found that the generator didn’t use a standard counter sink taper Standard taper being 82* generator at 60* decided to machine a new taper but was confused about how to set the compound on the lathe so had to draw it out used a collet to hold the screw new taper installed interesting new part being delivered tomorrow stay tuned
I got 2 parts deliveries this week The first being another vintage speed manifold This must be a early casting because it’s actually a true dual plane casting After some cleanup I will be able to bolt this up to my original manifold with no modifications This is what I was looking for in the beginning The 2nd part is a’38-‘39 generator armature Been wanting to finish the generator but haven’t found any affordable armatures After doing some research found this one pretty cheap and decided to see if I can machine it to fit check out how many times the old one has been turned the thread is the same just the main diameter and the seal diameter are different with just a little bit more length needed for the bearings I think I can just trim.040” off the key instead of cutting the key seat deeper (I would have to buy a key seat cutter) Got it set up in the lathe just doing more thinking before I start making cuts Also I disassembled the starter everything looked great so I cleaned greased and reassembled I then noticed that the terminal bolt was stripped I rethreaded it but I think what I will do is cut it off and install a coupling nut in place of the first nut and then either use a bolt or stud to attach the cable The thread under the first nut is ok You can then hold the coupling nut with a wrench when you tighten the cable to prevent everything from turning
Posting in real time today Started turning the armature down and discovered a few things The split sleeve came loose so I loctited it in place only to discover that the dimension of the shaft was already correct for the felt seal I’m getting better with my machining skills and got the proper finish dimension and because I had indicated the tail stock I had no taper (probably a first for me) fortunately I started looking at the key before starting to machine it It works perfectly without modification It’s like this armature started life as a earlier version
I don’t have much to report but I have gotten in some new hardware for the main caps and rods On these early engines the main cap bolts go thru the block from the cam valley I matched up some new bolts to replace the square head ones they came in stamped arp so that’s good Some new nuts too the threads feel really smooth should get good torque values New con rod nuts since a socket doesn’t fit well on the originals
Got the crankshaft cleaned using some oven cleaner I’ve read to take out the oil gallery plugs but these early cranks don’t have any plugs I’ve actually had a hard time finding info on these early engines The 21 stud motors particularly pre insert main bearing just don’t have the following What was the first thing you did to a’34 ford you replaced that motor with a late model flathead this is hotrodding after all I had previously polished the crank when I had disassembled the engine that was when I measured the clearances This project would have never happened if it needed new Babbitt Crank clearance measured.002-.0025 “ with the shims still installed This motor has had the crank turned and new Babbitt poured in its past mounted the crank and flywheel in the lathe on ball bearings Gave me an appreciation for crank balancing and bob weights It would always settle with the rod journals equalized I think I will deburr the crank just to protect my hands while I’m working on the bottom end
WARNING This maybe a very long post so read at your own risk of being totally confused as I’m sure I will be just writing it While researching generators (* seeprevious posts) I found that there are 3 basic types ‘33-‘39 (‘38-‘39 being odd*) 1/2”thread on end of armature, small diameter case ‘40-‘48 bigger case and armature with big diameter thread (possibly 17 mm haven’t actually measured ,electric motors bearings are always metric just like spark plugs so you never know) ‘49-‘53 the ones with the strap mount I’ve been thinking about using a mid mounted fan for radiator clearance but using a early generator probably will have distributor clearance problems but I won’t know that until I get the motor assembled Thought about using the strap mount and welding to the front end plate but that looked like it would be a mess Thought about welding pads to the front end plate that’s probably not a bad idea Picked up a’42-‘48 end plate #21A-10139 and started machining (remember from above the bigger case diameter) Then had to put in new threaded holes for assembly (find myself using the rotary table a lot) standard replacement bearing is a 6203-2rs (17mm bore x 40mm od x 12mm) I’m using the small diameter shaft so the bearing you need is 6203-15-2rs (15mm bore x 40mm x 12 mm wide) Had to turn the armature.250” further (using my burnt up armature for fitting purposes) assembled together then had to make a spacer.750” long to get the pulley proper distance used the old bolt holes to index the end plate I would be driving the fan off of the generator (no room for an extra sheave on the crank pulley) So would be machining a pulley for the generator Will the generator shaft and bearing take the stress? Don’t know but using pulley diameters I can really slow the fan down I don’t think the multi grove generator pulleys would have the proper spacing But I’m getting ahead of myself need to get the motor assembled and running
Lots of good work there. Seems like it might be difficult to get a replacement in Valentine, Nebraska on a Sunday afternoon.
Happy thanksgiving everyone Bringing you an update while you wait for your turkey dinner Got the crankshaft deburred ,the oil passages cleaned out and the flywheel threads chased It’s just waiting for a final cleaning before installing Turned my attention to the main caps After 90 years the nut surfaces are quite distorted and it looks like somebody has taken a chisel to a couple of them took a skim cut to clean up the surfaces also reamed out the holes where they were distorted Next I thought that since I had a couple of spare parts from my generator project (front plate,old armature) that I might try to make a idler pulley or what I believe was called a cutdown generator Found this old piece in dads scrap (he would disassemble old parts and keep anything that he might want to use) the little end is the correct size so cut it off Will still need to weld up the split looks good bolted together turned my attention to the armature Removed the copper then beat the remaining off the shaft will have to cut the shaft off Then turn the end down to.625”for the end bushing I’m hoping the shaft will clean up at.625” that would make life easier I can make a new bushing but prefer to use a unmodified end plate (complete with brush holders) Can also sleeve the shaft I think this would be useful especially on the run stand where I could use a 12 volt battery and not having to buy a 6 volt battery just for running the engine Have a great day everyone
The Jalopy Journal
